Recommended Study Sequence

This unit introduces students to the foundational skills and knowledge required for professional practice in a range of social science related careers. With an emphasis on practical experience through fieldwork it introduces students to a range of community and organisational structures, professional value frameworks, and skills in interpersonal and written communication within these contexts. It enables students to identify issues of power within social networks, conflicting and collaborative interests, participation, representation, values, ethics, trust and collaboration; ways of working with others to achieve shared objectives; mechanisms for goal setting, issues identification, information and resource sharing that operate in everyday life.

Understanding Society is a core unit offered by the School of Social Sciences which will introduce students in the first year of their studies to key concepts and theories used in examination of and for understanding social action, social policy, social institutions, social structure and social change. Students enrolled in the unit will be introduced to factual information concerning contemporary societies and the methods of interpreting such information. At the conclusion of their studies in this unit students will have been presented with opportunities to develop skills in critical reading and sociological analysis.

The definition of particular social problems as crimes, how crime is measured and explained and who are identified as criminals or victims is not straightforward. This unit challenges the commonsense view that accepts at face value that crime can be defined by criminal law or by a conceptual analysis of the harm done. With a discussion of fundamental elements of institutions and practices the unit examines how police, courts and corrections influence processes of criminalisation and victimisation and the societal context in which this occurs.

This unit describes, explains and analyses the role and function of police from a social, historical and comparative perspective as well as different policing practices in Australia and other nations. It will address issues including the structure, roles, and reform of police, social diversity and community relations and debates about distinct policing strategies and their social impact. Students will explore the relevance of policing theories and concepts to contemporary issues and culture.

This unit focuses on the local experiences of cultural and socio-economic difference. This includes applied social science approaches to inequality, diversity, community, sense of place, and environmental sustainability in the urban setting. There is an emphasis upon spatial literacy for social scientists (fieldwork, mapping, data analysis and place description).

This unit introduces the main theoretical perspectives for understanding the ‘individual in society’, including biological, cognitive, behavioural and personality explanations of individual behaviour. Students are guided and encouraged to explore relevance to everyday life and contemporary issues. Once established, these theories are extended to understanding individuals in society using a bio-psycho-social framework. Theoretical stances related to ‘levels of explanation’, ‘individualism vs collectivism’, and ‘personality vs situation’ are explored as are topics such as social cognition; social influence, and social relations, for example, social identity, prejudice, aggression, pro-social behaviours, attitude formation and change and relationships.

This unit introduces major approaches within criminology offering explanations of the causes of crime, with consideration of the impact of such other fields as sociology and ethnography. Its scope ranges from classicism and positivism to the rise of social perspectives in the twentieth century including the Chicago school, strain theory, labelling, Marxism and left realism, feminism, governmentality, risk theory and critical criminology. Final consideration will be given to psychosocial approaches to crime, and the revival of free will and rationality in neo-liberal analyses. These traditions and perspectives will be illustrated by consideration of key research examples.

This unit introduces students to the processes of investigating an offence or other matter. The inquiry process, ‘project management’ of an investigation and preparation of the brief of evidence is emphasised. Emphasis is laid on the nature, forms, preservation and admissibility evidence. Students learn correct interview procedures for witnesses, victims and persons of interest, the legislation and practice of Electronically Recorded Interview between a Suspect and Police (ERISP) and the requirements for interviewing children, Indigenous Australians, members of children, Indigenous Australians and members of cognitive and learning disabilities communities and individuals with learning difficulties (CALD). The students apply their learning to selected investigations. Basic intelligence practices including gathering, analysis and sharing are interwoven throughout the unit.

This unit introduces students to the nature of western ethics and moral discourse, to ethical methodology and to the possibilities and limits of ethical discourse and practice. It covers the history of the formalisation of ethics as well as its current philosophical and sociological dimensions. It also deals with various case studies of ethical issues and moral debates students may encounter in their everyday day and professional lives. Students will be invited to reflect on moral discourse(s) and on the use of ethics for social justice and fairness.

The unit develops an understanding of the complexity of juvenile crime in Australian society by addressing the historical, political, cultural and socio-economic factors associated with youth crime, constructions of youth, and, governmental strategies for regulating and preventing juvenile crime. An inter-disciplinary framework is used to develop a critical appreciation of the impacts of the regulation of particular youth subjectivities that contribute to their over-representation in the juvenile justice system, with a particular focus on Aboriginal youth. The unit promotes an awareness of a broad range of youth-positive interventions for working with young people within/at risk of entering the juvenile justice system.

This unit introduces students to the adversarial system, the legislative context of everyday policing, and the different forms of state and federal courts. It includes an emphasis on police powers (NSW and elsewhere), summary and indictable offences, and the role of enforcement and discretion. In particular alternative resolution, specialist courts and Australian Indigenous Law are described and their role and function analysed. This unit is of value to students in policing, criminology, law, and community welfare.

This unit will foster a reflexive view of the research process by examining rival interpretations of social science and debates about the strengths and limitations of various methods. This will be achieved via critical analysis of key examples of social research. The ethical and practical implications of the use of various qualitative and quantitative methods will also be discussed. Students will be required to complete a short assignment mixing different forms of information and sources of data.

This unit concentrates on the implications for police practice of the legislative framework, police responsibilities including procedures, practices and methods. The content will focus on police decision-making and discretion, and the meaning and practice of police powers. The approach necessary for working with diverse communities is described, analysed and critiqued, as are associated communication practices. Concepts such as the appropriate use of force, the appropriate use of personal information and the proper management of serious and fatal incidents are debated and critiqued. By comparison, examples are drawn from Australian state and federal policing, and international contexts.

This unit will examine historical, theoretical and research material regarding victimisation from crime and the possible means to prevent this. The criminal justice acknowledgment of victims will be analysed in relation to the growth of victim studies, evidence about unreported crime, fear of crime and the relation between patterns of victimisation and social disadvantage. Additionally, the unit will critically focus on contemporary state initiatives to assist victims, lobbying on behalf of specific groups, and how these compare and contrast with the more innovative means of responding to victimisation in both public and private spheres with crime prevention strategies.

This unit will develop more advanced research understanding and skills in students who have successfully completed Social Research Methods. Students are required to design and complete a developed research project that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques of information gathering and analysis and reporting. Contemporary developments in methods, research relationships with funding bodies, sponsors and community groups, and the social impacts of University-based research will be examined.

Contemporary criminological knowledge typically concerns explanations of offending, victimisation, prevention and safety, but debates about these matters also reflect unequal power, social division and exclusion. The unit will focus on the criminological concern with individual offenders and the implications of this for responses to crimes including those of the powerful. Additionally, it will analyse the impacts of the blurred lines between the public and private, the national and global, citizens and aliens, as well as evidence about the expansion of more intensive forms of policing and surveillance in contemporary societies.

This unit will provide students with the opportunity to engage with contemporary debates in the social sciences. Students will examine key concepts and structures in the social sciences such as place, work, community, family, power, diversity and globalisation within the context of current political and social events. This will encourage the student to critically analyse and understand current debates and contentious issues relevant to the social sciences. Students will use both theoretical and applied knowledge to develop an informed position on matters of continuing importance to the community and the polity.

Contemporary societies are replete with images of crime across cultural forms including media, writing, film and television. This unit will examine these depictions of crime in society and moral panic about crime, with a stress on the value of ethnographic studies and a comparison between different theoretical explanations of crime and culture. Additionally, it will focus on accounts of the cultural origins of forms of violence, property crime, drug use and collective disorder as manifestations of social protest, transgression and leisure. Lastly, the unit will critically examine evidence about the culture of criminal justice agencies such as courts and prisons.

In recent decades, models and understanding of gender have become a major way of explaining crime and victimisation. Most obviously, feminist researchers have pioneered studies of the neglected victimisation of women from male violence and the impact of gendered discourses on the criminal justice system. This unit will critically engage with this material and also focus on contemporary accounts of the links between criminal offending and different violent and non-violent masculinities. Lastly, the shifting regulation of different sexualities and their criminalisation will be analysed.

The demise of corporal punishment and regular use of imprisonment are defining features of control in modern states. This unit provides a historical and sociological examination of models, practices and justifications for punishment and incarceration. It analyses early liberal notions of the social contract, the ‘great incarcerations’ and criminology’s stress on treatment, reform and rehabilitation. It further examines the development of probation and parole systems, decarceration, community corrections, mass imprisonment, and the contemporary control of risk and the ‘dangerous’. Additionally, it explores the impact of imprisonment and corrections by such factors as age, social class, racial/ethnic identity, sex/gender, and disability.